Friday, October 30, 2009

Another doctor's appointment this week to assess the baby progress, but not much has really changed. I am still dilated to about 2cm, with not much going on by way of contractions this week. Since I am still getting very sick and have lost a little weight again, it looks like they are going to induce me next week (unless by some miracle I go into labor on my own before then). The ultrasounds show that Jack is a great size (up to about 6 1/2 lbs now), and next week will be an amnio to determine if his lungs are mature enough to start the induction. If so, we will be on our way to meeting our little guy!

At this point I am grateful to have an end date in mind. Being sick for nine months has been difficult, and now knowing that I just have to make it through one more week is a blessing.

In the meantime, I am still holding out a slight hope that I might go into labor on my own. My midwife has suggested some "at home remedies" to try to get things moving. She is also hoping that I might either go into labor spontaneously or at least that some of the tricks will help make my body more ready for an induction. Some of them are not so great (castor oil anyone?), while others are pretty nice (prenatal massage)... So now we just wait and see.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Well, another week gone by. Some slight progress on the baby front, but it is definitely slow going. I saw the doctor on Thursday, who says I am dilated 1-2cm, which I guess is good, but doesn't necessarily mean there with be any progress. She reminded me not to get my hopes up because some women can be dilated at 2cm for weeks. I had pretty frequent contractions most of the day yesterday, so I did get a little excited that maybe it was happening, but today the contractions have died down almost completely. So, we wait...

In the meantime, we have been getting last minute stuff done to get ready for Jack. The nursery furniture finally arrived this week, so we got it all set up. It looks great, and now we can officially say his room is complete. Another HUGE thanks to Nana Cis and Papa Bill Bill for Jack's baby furniture. We love it!

Monday, October 19, 2009

What a great weekend! We went down to Philly for a short visit this past weekend for a friend's wedding, and also a baby shower. The drive down could have been a little better, as I required a few stops to deal with being sick, but the weekend was fun, and I felt relatively okay.

Maureen & Chandler's wedding was beautiful. It was great to see everyone one last time before we have baby in tow. Also, John's sisters took advantage of friends being in town for the wedding, and threw us a wonderful baby shower brunch. We are so thankful for such generous friends and family! As for me, I have officially passed the first week of my maternity leave. Being off work has its perks, but I have to admit, I mostly feel as though I am kind of bored. I shouldn't be because there are about a hundred things I could do around the house here that probably should be done before Jack arrives...but really, if I wanted to do those things they would have been done already and not firmly planted on that mental to do list that never really gets done. : )

So instead of doing all that stuff that I should do but don't want to do, I am starting a couple projects. First, I am making a baby book. I decided to do a hybrid of a standard baby book, a digital scrapbook, and photo album. I just didn't really like any of the ones I saw in the store, so now I have a little project for myself. I'll have to post some pages as I start making them. I also started knitting Jack a blanket about 4 months ago, and the progress stalled pretty quickly after it started, so I better get cracking on that as well.

Anyway, the other new trend seems to be that I wake up really early in the morning and don't fall back asleep. John thinks my body is preparing itself for a "baby schedule." Maybe, but for now I would rather have the sleep. Although, I must admit, getting to the grocery store at 6:45am to get a quick shopping trip done is really nice. You get the closest parking spot, you pretty much get the whole store to yourself, and no lines at the checkouts. That's because all the normal people are still in bed. Oh well, all the more time to get to work on my new projects.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

So another week has gone by - now 35 weeks into the baby extravaganza... At my appointment last week, I was told that I need to stop working. Partly due to the contractions and partly due to the fact that I am still not really gaining much weight...in fact I lost a little again. So here I am now on maternity leave, still sick as a dog, but with no baby yet.

I am kind of torn about having to be on leave this early. My employer gives me 13 weeks leave, which is really great, but I was hoping to work up until delivery, so that I would not have to waste any of that 13 weeks before the baby is born. Now I can't help but think that every day I sit home before he is born is just one less day I will get with him afterwards before I have to go back to work. On the flip side, this nausea/vomiting situation is worse than ever, and I was starting to have major guilt about calling in sick to work, so at least now I am just sick without the guilt. Not to mention my energy level is at an all-time low considering I hardly keep any food or nourishment actually in my body.

I don't know what has to happen in order for a doctor to be willing to induce labor, but I am hoping that either I spontaneously go into labor soon, or that they will take pitty on me and induce me soon. I know it is not ideal, but this vomiting is out of control and taking both a physical and emotional toll on me that I am at my wits end with. I see my midwife again on Thursday, so who knows? They are going to do another ultrasound to measure Jack because I lost more weight last week, and maybe from there they will have to weigh the pros and cons of how long we will keep this up. I have to believe that he would be getting much better nourishment outside that inside at this point, but I am no doctor, so I just follow orders.

In the meantime, John and I are getting ready for Jack as much as we can. We still haven't gotten our furniture for the nursery (crib, changing table, and dresser) delivered yet, but hopefully it will make an appearance before Jack does. Last week I had a little panic attack because we didn't have our carseat yet, so we rectified that situation and have a carseat installed in my car - all ready to go.

Otherwise not much else going in our neck of the woods. We are finally getting a new furnace installed to replace the 80 year old bohemuth that currently resides in our basement - neatly wrapped in asbestos... Hopefully switching to natural gas instead of oil will be a little less costly for heating in the winter.

Baring any sort of labor scenario for the weekend, we are hoping to make it to Philly for our friends Maureen & Chandler's wedding this weekend. John's sisters are also throwing a baby shower for us. Something fun to look foward to...

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Well, we're in the homestretch...at least I hope. John and I have been busy getting things ready for Jack, although I don't feel like we are near ready enough. His room is done except for the lack of baby furniture, which is looking like it won't arrive until Nov 6. We'll have to take some pics when it's all set up.

I had an appointment with my midwife on Thursday. All seems to be going well. I had been wondering if it was normal to be having contractions this early, but truthfully, never having felt them before I wasn't really sure if I was feeling contractions or if it was just Jack moving around in there. Well, it turns out I'm not crazy...I am in fact having contractions because I had one while I was in the office. She was using the doppler to listen to the fetal heart rate, and she suddenly stopped and said, "You're having a contraction right now, do you feel that?" It was actually a little reassuring to know that I wasn't crazy in thinking that I had been having these for a while. So now I have to be on contraction count until my appointment next week. The thing is, sometimes I have them every 10 minutes or so, then I will go a while without having any. It's hard to count them. It's definitely a little too early for the arrival of our little guy though, so we'll see what she says when I go in next week.

I have pretty much already decided that anything beyond 36 weeks is fine by me. The nausea has not let up at all, and throwing up multiple times a day has become part of my routine despite all the meds they have me on...at this point I have tried Reglan, Compazine, Phenergan, Zofran, Pepcid, and Tums...The zofran is new as of this week and so far it has helped a little more than the Reglan without completely knocking me out like the Phenergan. Oh the joys of pregnancy...